Sightings

5/16/2011

— Martin E. Marty

We have to wear virtual sunglasses when we do our too-rare *Sightings* of
positive religion news in public media, so bright are these exceptions to
the down and depressing accounts. Since most religious people and those who
benefit from their doings see and experience more bright sides than down
sides, we ask: is there something wrong with those who report and publish or
broadcast the depressing and scandalous stories? As someone who has hung out
with the Religion Newswriters Association types for a half century, I ¢â‚¬â„¢d
argue that the problem results not from villainy or bias so much as from the
nature of things, and have come up with a formula: if religion is covered as
*news,* the bad stuff will predominate; if it appears as *features*, the
good side gets a chance to show.

* *

*News *waits for someone to embezzle or kill or seduce another in the name
of God. *Features* allows for creative reporters to get up close to
believing and behaving people who use their imagination, faith, energy, and
communal spirit to serve others. Let me document this sort-of thesis by
reference to the largest Protestant body in the country, the Southern
Baptist Convention. Size alone commends it to the public eye; there are more
Southern Baptists in the United States than there are Jews in the whole
world. They often fight in Convention meetings; many of them engage in
aggressive political moves that rouse reaction, and a few produce enough
celebrity scandals to keep the media folk busy. But the total of all those
doings doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t cancel out or properly portray the other sides of such
Baptist life. In this case, witness the *New York Times*, which devoted
almost a whole page under the headline  ¢â‚¬Å“For Some, Helping With Disaster
Relief Is Not Just Aid, It ¢â‚¬â„¢s a Calling. ¢â‚¬  The *Times* even gave author Kim
Severson space to explain what a  ¢â‚¬Å“calling ¢â‚¬  is, and even to explain
 ¢â‚¬Å“faith-based ¢â‚¬  practices which are borderline transgressions in respect to
some  ¢â‚¬Å“church-state ¢â‚¬  issues and some no-no proselytizing.

Nor did Severson neglect mention of the specialty of other faith-based
church bodies on the public scene: Mennonites (emergency supplies),
Presbyterians (counseling), Lutherans, (shelter and long-term relief work),
National Baptist Convention members (African-American church connections
with governmental agencies), etc. But the main story featured the work of
Southern Baptists, 95,000 of them trained at their churches to do instant
disaster relief, accompanied by S.U.V.s ( ¢â‚¬Å“spontaneous untrained
volunteers ¢â‚¬ ). Yes, they make up a news story, because they are vital, often
first on the scene and last to leave, when hurricanes, floods, tornadoes or
fires strike. An elaborate  ¢â‚¬Å“war room ¢â‚¬  in Alabama directs operations, but the
bases are local churches and homes.

 ¢â‚¬Å“Churches are literally, honestly, the first ones there ¢â‚¬  said one Alabama
official.  ¢â‚¬Å“We ¢â‚¬â„¢re the best-kept secret out there ¢â‚¬  said a Baptist cleanup man
to Severson. She featured a retired couple who use their  ¢â‚¬Å“leisure ¢â‚¬  to work;
the writer, who observed and listened to them concluded:  ¢â‚¬Å“And they did it
all for God. ¢â‚¬   ¢â‚¬Å“I thought when we were done working that I wanted to travel, ¢â‚¬ 
said the featured Mrs. Blankenship, a former flight attendant.  ¢â‚¬Å“I just never
thought it ¢â‚¬â„¢d look like this. But it ¢â‚¬â„¢s our calling. ¢â‚¬ 

There is much more in this story and there are many features like it
elsewhere, accounts which can but should not be dismissed as  ¢â‚¬Å“feel good. ¢â‚¬  If
I go on much more in this vein I may lose credentials as a reporter on the
way  ¢â‚¬Å“things really are. ¢â‚¬  But Severson ¢â‚¬â„¢s story illumines another dimension of
the way  ¢â‚¬Å“things really are, ¢â‚¬  apart from denominational controversies and
from believers who have not yet learned  ¢â‚¬Å“calling. ¢â‚¬ 

*References*

* *

Kim Severson,  ¢â‚¬Å“For Some, Helping With Disaster Relief Is Not Just Aid, It ¢â‚¬â„¢s
a Calling, ¢â‚¬ *New York Times*, May 9, 2011.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/us/09baptist.html?_r=1&ref=kimseverson

*Martin E. Marty’s* biography, publications, and contact information can be
found at www.memarty.com.

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*Editor ¢â‚¬â„¢s Note:* *Sightings* is now on Twitter! Follow
@DivSightings<http://twitter.com/#!/search/divsightings>and retweet
our columns.

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Can American Muslims be both loyal to their tradition and full participants
in American civil society? In this month ¢â‚¬â„¢s Religion & Culture Web
Forum<http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/>,
Vincent J. Cornell argues that an embrace of the tenets of Shari ¢â‚¬Ëœa
fundamentalism has led even would-be moderate Muslim leaders to reject the
principles of American constitutional democracy. Consequently, they advocate
(often unintentionally) a retreat from full participation in American civil
society into sectarianism and  ¢â‚¬Å“millet multiculturalism. ¢â‚¬  Against this tend,
says Cornell, it is necessary for Muslim thinkers to find an  ¢â‚¬Å“overlapping
consensus ¢â‚¬  between Shari ¢â‚¬Ëœa and constitutionalism ¢â‚¬”one that gives warrant for
the exercise of  ¢â‚¬Å“unsupervised reason. ¢â‚¬ 

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*Sightings* comes from the Martin Marty
Center<http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/>at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.

Submissions policy

*Sightings* welcomes submissions of 500 to 750 words in length that seek to
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science, business and education. Previous
columns<http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/sightings/>give
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Columns may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author
of the column, *Sightings*, and the Martin Marty Center at the University of
Chicago Divinity School.